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How-To Geek

The Commodore 64 was one of the bestselling home computers ever, and many geeks got their first computing experience on one of these early personal computers. Here’s an easy way to revisit the early years of personal computing with a theme for Windows 7.

With only 64Kb of ram and an 8 bit processor, the Commodore 64 is light-years behind today’s computers. But with a Windows 7 themepack, you can turn back the years and give your computer a quick overhaul to look more like its ancient predecessor.

Age Windows 7 with a click

Download the Commodore 64 theme from PC World (link below), and unzip the files.

Now, double-click on the Themepack file to apply the theme.

This will open your Personalization panel and will automatically change your system fonts, window style, background, and more.

Your desktop will go from your Windows 7 look…

to a modified Windows 7 look that is reminiscent of the Commodore 64.

Open an application to see all the changes … notice the old-style font in the Window boarder and menus.

And, if you want to go back to the standard Windows 7 look and feel, it’s only a click away in the Personalization dialog. Right-click on your desktop, select Personalize, and then choose the theme you want.

Conclusion

Although this doesn’t give you the real look and feel of the Commodore 64, it is still a fun way to experience a bit of computer nostalgia. There are tons of excellent themes available for Windows 7, so check back for more exciting ways to customize your desktop!

@redkirk – Try changing the .themepack file’s extension to .cab. Then open it in your favorite archival program, and you’ll see the individual backgrounds and icons. That’ll get you everything except the glass border. Enjoy! :)

Thanks for this. Whoever created it.
aaaaahhhh the good old 64.
I’ve gotta admit, as a computer technician this is a major major insult to the graphics quality of Windows 7, and when you consider the years of development behind it, and then all of us who went through the 80’s and the C64 Era, Just go and Dumb it down to a standard Commodore 64 logon screen, hahahaha

But it looks bloody cool on my desktop and brings back tonnes of memories, I’m keeping this one forever, and i’m going to tell all my clients about this, Perhaps we can convince their children to start using it. how about that , get them over to the dark side of the force, and relive the 80’s and the C64.